Asia Needs New Strategic Equilibrium: Thailand Junta Chief

[Hans Mann]

Asia must build a new strategic equilibrium in the face of lingering uncertainty and rising challenges, Thailand’s junta chief told a security forum in Singapore on Friday.

The lack of clarity produced by a post-Cold War multipolar order, combined with the manifold security challenges Asia faces today – including the South China Sea, North Korea, terrorism, cybersecurity, irregular migration, and climate change – has created the need for a new strategic equilibrium, Prayut Chan-o-cha said during a keynote address to the Shangri-La Dialogue. While he did not define exactly what this equilibrium meant, he appeared to suggest some sort of stability both at the domestic as well as the regional level.

“We need to find a suitable equilibrium as soon as possible. Otherwise those of us who have a direct duty to maintain security will have failed,” he told the audience over dinner at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defense summit.

To create such an equilibrium, Prayut said countries should pursue common goals like peace and prosperity but think beyond national boundaries and traditional notions of security given the transnational nature of challenges in a globalized world. He also said that problems should also be addressed through understanding, cooperation, and support and encouragement – particularly for countries facing internal issues like Thailand.

He also called for a “paradigm shift” from confrontation to collaboration, where countries would move from conflict to harmony; zero-sum to positive-sum outcomes; and common interests to shared values. Prayut said the paradigm shift ought to be built on the foundation of the “Three Ms”: mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

“Every country should make a paradigm shift…and leave no one behind,” he said.

Prayut went on to outline seven ways through which countries could pursue this new equilibrium, including promoting mutual trust and confidence; creating supporting partnerships; not choosing sides; and encouraging cooperation among major powers.

He also added that the international community ought to help Thailand achieve its own equilibrium as that would in turn help bolster the equilibrium in Southeast Asia as well as the Asia-Pacific more generally. Doing so, Prayut argued, would require time as well as trust and respect from other countries, including by not imposing their own ideologies on Thailand as a prerequisite for cooperation.

“So Thailand’s equilibrium and resilience will help maintain and protect ASEAN’s equilibrium which will be vital towards creating a new strategic equilibrium in the Asia-Pacific,” he said.

Asia Needs New Strategic Equilibrium: Thailand Junta Chief | The Diplomat

[taxexile]

he's been at the dictionary again.

[Hans Mann]

Doing so, Prayut argued, would require time as well as trust and respect from other countries, including by not imposing their own ideologies on Thailand as a prerequisite for cooperation.

Between all the big words, is the real message.

[Hans Mann]

Transcript of US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's speech at IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday

[Dragonfly94]

strategic equilibrium and paradigm shift, just missed out road map and hub, i'm sure all are impressed, mans obviously a genius

[Neverna]

In other words, "Just leave us alone and mind your own business".

[Hans Mann]

Anyone has that soundbite of him speaking the word "equilibrium"?

Gotta hear it, yes.

[Neverna]

Anyone has that soundbite of him speaking the word "equilibrium"?

Gotta hear it, yes.

He spoke Thai (38s into the video).

[Seekingasylum]

Essentially, Thailand needs to balance its Chinese arse kissing with its hypocrisy in appearing to adopt western ethics and international standards as it strives to make more money through corruption, cronyism and exploitation of the masses for the benefit of its own sainted elite.

[OhOh]

strategic equilibrium and paradigm shift, just missed out road map and hub, i'm sure all are impressed

It does have that Sino smell doesn't it. Not that I disagree with the sentiments expressed

is the real message.

He is in power, what else is he to say - "Uhh no sir massa' iz aint havin yo bab!"

Thailand needs to balance its Chinese arse kissing

Diplomacy is just consensual verbal sex. It always has been to all unexceptional empires.

[thaimeme]

Essentially, Thailand needs to balance its Chinese arse kissing with its hypocrisy in appearing to adopt western ethics and international standards as it strives to make more money through corruption, cronyism and exploitation of the masses for the benefit of its own sainted elite.

True.
Fair critique, theGent.

[Farang Ky Ay]

Agree with other comments

I like the part about thinking beyond national boundaries and adressing problems by cooperating ... is he talking about Phrea Vihear issue?

[thaimeme]

Essentially, Thailand needs to balance its Chinese arse kissing with its hypocrisy in appearing to adopt western ethics and international standards as it strives to make more money through corruption, cronyism and exploitation of the masses for the benefit of its own sainted elite.

Sounds about right, TheGent....


Same as it ever was.
Nothing has differed for a couple generations, under any ruling government - civilian or military.

[sabang]

Doing so, Prayut argued, would require time as well as trust and respect from other countries, including by not imposing their own ideologies on Thailand as a prerequisite for cooperation.

Ideologies such as:-

mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual benefit.

[sabang]

Junta’s dishonesty to the world continues

At a conference where security trumps democracy anyway, the PM offers false assurances

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) cannot expect to gain the trust and understanding of the international community if it continues to be dishonest and misleading about the domestic political situation, as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was last week in Singapore.

Invited to present his vision on regional security issues at the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue conference, General Prayut encapsulated Asia's challenges and requirements well, only to try and disguise the state of Thai politics.

Prayut was inaccurate in stating that a decade of political conflict had resulted in unprecedented division and a democracy in form but not function. "The rampant corruption, legal deadlocks, rallying of opposing sides, manipulation of the media, escalation of violence, breakdown of the rule of law and, ultimately, the use of weapons in conflict, led to political conflicts that could not be addressed through the democratic process," he told delegates at the security conference.

The division we suffer is not unprecedented, and nor did it stem from politics that rendered democracy dysfunctional.

Prior to both the May 2014 coup and the 2006 coup, Thailand had a normal parliamentary system similar to that of many other countries, including the United Kingdom. Ideological differences are hardly unique to Thailand. But in more advanced democracies such differences, and even conflicts that boil into violence, are resolved non-violently in parliament. Public dissatisfaction with elected representatives is expressed in the next election.

Thailand had already developed a system of democratic institutions that could have calmed its political upheaval without the military interfering as it did. The armed forces - manipulated by the power elite - simply refused to allow the system to work in the normal way.

Prime Minister Prayut reiterated pretentiously to his international audience in Singapore that the Thai military is politically neutral. As most of his listeners knew, however, it is constitutionally neutral but in fact always takes sides. Its troops spilled the blood of fellow citizens to end the 2010 red-shirt street demonstrations and, by contrast, responded to the pleas of the erstwhile yellow shirts to topple a legitimate and elected government in 2014. Prayut was among the insiders on both occasions and knows this distinction all too well.

Countries around the world deal with street protests through the judicious application of existing laws formulated in the name of the people. The only law the Thai military understands is martial law, and it is applied with extreme prejudice. Prayut and the NCPO are forever stressing the importance of the rule of law, but they must have a limited grasp of what this entails. If they truly respected the rule of law, they would not have staged coups against elected governments - a coup in itself is unlawful. Thus any law imposed by a coup-installed government and any ostensibly legal action taken is illegitimate, lacking the popular mandate and measures of accountability that democracy demands.

Nor would the prime minister even consider having in his arsenal the interim legislation known as Article 44, which grants him extraordinary powers to override the usual restrictions on government activity. And nor would the NCPO be bringing civilians to trial before a military court.

For Prayut to tell foreign observers that the junta doesn't "intend" to violate rights or restrict freedoms demonstrates how hypocritical this government is willing to be. It must surely be plain for all to see both at home and abroad that the military is offering false assurances with its claim to have seized power temporarily to restore law and order so that reforms can be introduced. The ongoing detention of critics of the junta has nothing to do with reform, and in fact runs counter to what ought to be reform's ultimate goal - the strengthening of Thai democracy.

Junta?s dishonesty to the world continues - The Nation

Hard hitting stuff from The Nation.